Bill Pascrell: “to the chairman, my good friend from Georgia, I thank you for bringing this to the floor, and the ranking member. I rise…”

“to the chairman, my good friend from Georgia, I thank you for bringing this to the floor, and the ranking member. I rise today, Mr. Speaker, in support of House Concurrent Resolution 99, legislation designed to bring attention to what I would call an American tragedy, a stealthy thief who can strike anyone at any time without warning and often with devastating consequences. Traumatic brain injury, TBI, is a leading cause of death and disability among young Americans in the United States. As you have just heard, someone will sustain a traumatic brain injury every 21 seconds. We are talking about 1.5 million Americans every year. More than 1.4 million sustain brain injuries, more than the incidence of HIV/AIDS, spinal cord injury, even multiple sclerosis. Fifty thousand of those injured will die; 55 million Americans are living with TBI right now. Think about that, Mr. Speaker. These injuries manifest themselves in a myriad of ways, from a small behavioral change to complete physical disability and even death. Traumatic brain injury costs the country an estimated societal cost of $60 billion every year and, currently, there is no cure. Most of these injuries are due to falls, motor vehicle traffic crashes or violence. Additionally, due to the changing nature of warfare, American troops are suffering TBI at an alarming rate.…”